Guild Wars 2

I believe the fountain will be coming back.

I think it would be even better to have the fountain come back as something completely new, not that i hate the lion or anything.

It could be a bit refreshing to see a new fountain every year…or maybe they could go ahead and stick a HUGE Christmas tree there in prep for the Wintersday event.

I think one of the reasons exploration starts to become less and less important is because once people see something once, they could care less to go look at it again. While the lion statue was awesome and I was in awe of it for about the first two weeks, I kind of just pass by not noticing it anymore.

This could change that, and lead to even better things being changed.

I’m hoping for an event to help rebuilding the statue. Maybe it could run for a couple of weeks or so and after each part of the chain, you could see how the statue builds up more and more. Would be fun.

I like it now with the Mad King emblem on it. They should just make it so players can walk on it.

Oh good – so those rumours about it being replaced with a different statue were false then!

So is it gonna just magically re-appear when the event ends November 1st?

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up.

For what it’s worth, I am glad it will return and was hoping as much. I was even wondering if our defeating the Mad King to pacify him might motivate him to use his great power(s) to restore the statue. At first, when he appeared at the start of Act IV, I thought maybe the fountain was returning then (but it was just some stone to cover the hole).

The fountain is very intricate and detailed, and your work has not gone unnoticed. It’s quite the centerpiece.

I really love the statue, and while I never had any doubt that it’d be coming back, I’m glad to hear that it’s safe (and that destroying important things is a possibility!).

Josh Foreman.8250:

Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that.

You’re such a tease, Mr. Foreman! xD I can only hope you’re referring to this big update you guys have coming in November.

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

This just in: Memo for Mr Josh Foreman from the Arenanet overlords: The lion has been replaced by a skunk.

Mr Foreman: “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

Halo.8976:

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

Wow. I bet Air Eles are happy to see that some fish statue was better polished than their auto-skill, or how some fish statute has more frames of animation than most professions are. Just wow.

Different people are responsible for designing different things in the game, and he says he spent his free time on it. During the BWEs, almost everyone I know who saw LA when it opened was talking about that statue and telling people they had to go see it. Part of the reason it worked so well in this event was how creepy it was to see such a familiar landmark warped and transformed.

Hey Josh thanks for responding. You did an excellent job on the statue.

I do like the one posters idea of rebuilding it over time. Not sure how much work that would take but it would be interesting.

Halo.8976:

Still.

Ele’s auto-attack < fish statue.

Any Elementalist focusing solely on that air auto-attack being sub-par probably isn’t playing correctly. The point is to switch attunements frequently, not stay in one single one spamming the auto-attack until everything else in that attunement is off cooldown.

It does not surprise me at all the amount of work that went into that statue. I remember the first time I saw it, I went “Holy kittens, that’s a ridiculous amount of detail for just one piece of scenery in a fairly large zone.” Very well done.

at least add some asuras “repairing” it for 1 week or something it would be pretty amazing

I rather Josh goes on to do other new stuff The status is fine as is.

Mr. Foreman, you are quickly becoming among my favorite of the GW2 design team.

What would be nice when the statue returns is to make a small fence around it with workmen of different races rebuilding the statue (to explain ingame how it returned), and just keep them around for like a week or something, haha.

Vote Josh Foreman Nov 6th.

I heard you also made the clock tower, and if so, you are my favorite known GW2 designer.

Keep up the good work, cannot wait to see what else you have in store- I take it you have a hand in the big destruction you hinted at in the above post?

I absolutely love the statue, and I’m glad to hear it’s not going anywhere. Fantastic work.

The clock tower was also really awesome…got my heart pumping and gave me hours of enjoyment. Keep up the great work, it’s exactly these types of things that push GW2 over the top and make it a masterpiece overall.

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

Yay, glad to hear it. I’d miss the lion! It’s my favourite place in LA to stand around /dancing while talking in guild chat.

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

Good to hear it’ll come back. I was really sorry to see it deteriorate during the days leading to Mad King’s visit…

(though, every time I saw it, I was again awed at the details of it all…)

Now, what would I want to destroy permanently…

I miss him! I don’t feel safe in LA without his imposing presence!

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

Out of Curiosity, what did you did build it in? Maya3d, Modo etc etc?

Would be good to see it come back gradually, like a big scaffold and tent with worker NPC’s for a few weeks as if its being rebuilt.

Maybe make a quest around fixing the statue.

I agree, it is such a lovely icon of Lion’s Arch. It had better come back.
Although it would make for a hilarious running gag if it gets destroyed every event in some way or another.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Maybe make a quest around fixing the statue.

I agree, it is such a lovely icon of Lion’s Arch. It had better come back.
Although it would make for a hilarious running gag if it gets destroyed every event in some way or another.

I’d love for this to happen, it’d be hilarious.

I can see the statue with it’s own wiki page and backstory already.

And if it doesn’t become an ice rink for christmas much disappointment would be felt.

Ickorus.4518:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Maybe make a quest around fixing the statue.

I agree, it is such a lovely icon of Lion’s Arch. It had better come back.
Although it would make for a hilarious running gag if it gets destroyed every event in some way or another.

I’d love for this to happen, it’d be hilarious.

I can see the statue with it’s own wiki page and backstory already.

Oh my God, they killed Ken… I mean the lion!

Yeah, that could be amusing. I support this idea.

Well… the original Lions are flooded down LA’s lake So who says you your lion will last forever!

Clearly we will see npcs rebuilding it, and in a few days, restored. Probably updated on every future patch, or just an event rebuilding it, who will force us to be online again to see it at an exact timing. Pretty clear, isn’t it.

TransparentlyOpaque.1824:

Vote Josh Foreman Nov 6th.

I heard you also made the clock tower, and if so, you are my favorite known GW2 designer.

Keep up the good work, cannot wait to see what else you have in store- I take it you have a hand in the big destruction you hinted at in the above post?

Wait? Somebody actually admitted on working on the clowtower? … wow… now that’s courage right there…

(and I agree… amazing work!)

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

It is absolutely gorgeous, very rarely I feel the need to share something game related with my non-gamer girlfriend (who normally just politely nods and smiles while edging for the door) but I had to show her that statue during sunset. She said it was “very pretty” which may not sound like much but – trust me – given the source it’s the equivalent of 20 pages of enthusiastic raving (and possibly in character fanfic) from a fan.

I can’t wait for the new, improved 8,000 hand-tracked frame lion statue where the fish eat one another and the lion spits the fish back out again into the correct position with individual particle and sound effects for each fish and and and…

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

I appreciate your hard work!

They should have it being rebuilt over the course of a week or so, so each day you go there another part of it would be rebuilt.

TransparentlyOpaque.1824:

I heard you also made the clock tower, and if so, you are my favorite known GW2 designer.

He did, and i fully support this statement!

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

I saw Planet of the Apes.

:squinty eyes:

0_o`

It was a cool statute but it would be cool if it came back in pieces or partly built (which I think could be the same animation as the half destroyed (without the glows)

I love the statue and I’m happy the “rumours” were wrong. It was one of those “wow look at that” moments for me first time I saw it, brought a big smile to my face.

I must admit, was fun to see the lion exploding, leaving a huge hole, destroying the base too.

Josh Foreman.8250:

I worked way too hard on that thing to throw it away! That would make me cry. Haha… spent a lot of my free time on it actually. You know it has 4,000 frames of animation, and I had to hand track every single frame that a splash happened on every single fish for the audio guys to sync it up. Not that we will never permanently destroy anything. In fact… well, I can’t say more than that. But NOT the lion statue. It’s the symbol of LA. Like the Statue of Liberty is for New York or the Eiffel Tower is for Paris.

Colin just mentioned on the MMORPG livestream something about the lion statue being permanently gone unless I heard wrong? So now I’m a bit confused, is it coming back or really being removed? I can’t imagine you’d be happy if they removed it after working so hard on it :P

I only wish it was replaced with a building site for a few days.

It popping back in an instant would mean the mad king magically undid its destruction, which doesn’t make sense, he’s not that kind.

A crew of workers from all races working to make it back would make more sense, and will make player feel like they saw how all races made it, instead just reading it from an NPC, if they even bother to read.

Umm In the live stream with Colin he stated that it was gone….and he made it sound permanent too

You should have the Mad King rebuilding it for the next week piece by piece and have it progress each day. You could put him in a black/white stripped outfit with a ball and chain, and whistling work songs…

There are NPCs around the Fountain that talk about the history and how the races add to it. And that there are still additions to be made.

Josh, that’s a good fit for you to build on to it. How about 8,000 frames hmm? Add 4,000 more each year.

Anti-gravity water works would be nice. The Asura and Quaggan can build a floating aquarium overhead. And Skritt can just glue a bunch of shiny trash in a mosaic pattern.

Wow, I’m really saddened by this – it will be such a shame to not have the statue there anymore. I mean really, the game has hardly been out for two odd months. Why do this?

I think it’s funny that all the effort you put into this lion statue is just so they can blow it up annually. You must get really sad watching that cutscene.

It would be even better if the Tengu stopped clucking like hens and that emperor of theirs finally decided their stand on things, and as gesture they also added a little thing to the newly rebuilt statue.

You know, something Tengu are good at, like something detailed and durable made out of a Tengu steel.

“Anything is possible” I can’t help but reflect on. I’m sure this philosophy was applied when deciding first-gen Legendaries. Seeing as that “there’s no legendaries for me”, wielding Pistol and Shortbow, I have one conclusion:

The lion statue is returning with the aesthetics of The Dreamer, complete with a certain substitute for the water!

Rebuild the statue, but this time with a classy hat on it.

I suggest an 80ft statue of Snaff, surrounded by burning effigies of Logan Thackeray.

Edit:
With the words “Never trust a bookah” around the base.